5-star Malik Autry, a defensive end commit to Auburn: “I believe Deuce Knight is next”
Five-star defensive lineman Malik Autry, who is regarded as one of Auburn’s top commits in the class, has focused a lot of his efforts on persuading Deuce Knight to transfer from Notre Dame and join the class.
For Payton Thorne, what has changed at Auburn this season? Pretty much anything.While there are certain coaches and players you know well, there are also a lot of new folks, which is a positive thing.
Payton Thorne was unwilling to see the video.
After finishing the 2023 season as the least productive starting quarterback in the SEC, Thorne was clearly thrilled with Auburn’s offensive adjustments this offseason. The team has been hailed as being much more cohesive than the one that struggled to establish much consistent traction the previous year, and this includes the addition of new receivers, Hugh Freeze, and new coordinator Derrick Nix.
Auburn doesn’t want to discuss about last season, as Freeze has made apparent this preseason. For Thorne, it’s more about his displeasure with the offense’s controls last year than it is about how pointless it would be to break down video from a scheme that has undergone significant alteration.
“I look at it, and I see what our play calls were and all that and terminology, it makes me not feel good,” Thorne said on Monday. “I simply want to stop hearing those words. I’ve given that up. We use a much different offensive than we did the previous year.”
In Thorne’s opinion, both the newcomers and the well-known figures—Freeze at the head coach and longtime analyst Kent Austin elevated to quarterback coach—are in the ideal spots as he begins his second season as Auburn’s starter. Nix and Freeze are getting along well in practice, according to Thorne, as the former was Freeze’s coach at Ole Miss for five years.
Not to mention that Thorne is a talented receiver in the NFL. Robert Lewis and KeAndre Lambert-Smith, two seasoned transfers, can counterbalance the youth of true freshmen like Cam Coleman and Perry Thompson.
Thorne is now lot more at ease with Auburn’s offense than he was at this time last year as a result of everything.
When questioned about the differences between this year’s preseason and the previous one, Thorne said, “Just about everything, honestly.” “You’ve got some familiar faces around some coaches, some players, but for the most part there’s a lot of new guys — and that’s a good thing.”
More freedom for Thorne at the line of scrimmage is one of the new elements in Freeze’s system for 2024. As he said, “a lot of things were out of my control” with regard to pre-snap adjustments the previous season.
“To be honest, quite a bit more,” Thorne responded when asked about pre-snap control this season. “The previous year was a special instance. It was strange. We’re in a pretty good place right now, and I think I understand what Coach Austin sees, Coach Freeze is trying to do, and Coach Nix is trying to accomplish. Because that’s what (Freeze) would do if he were in there, coaches can have faith in my ability to adjust things up if necessary if we’re both viewing things in the same way.”
Having a thorough knowledge of the minute nuances, such as what Freeze wants him to do in a certain play versus a particular formation, has been one of Auburn’s main selling points this season for Thorne’s improved 2024 quarterback season.
“(Thorne) has had some really good moments where he’s done some things that made me go, ‘Alright, that was smart,'” Free freeze stated last week. “And it’s all about him understanding what the fixes are, particularly in our RPO game and our protection game.”
What results has that experience produced this preseason on the field? After nine days of camp, Thorne is generally happy with how he and the offense have practiced. Thorne was not pleased with Saturday’s scrimmage at Jordan-Hare Stadium.
